From: Rick v100 (rickv100@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Oct 13 2005 - 18:48:25 PDT
Is that considered a pre-selector transmission?
--- Sarge <micdunn@ev1.net> wrote:
> Sarge here again.
> I know all about the M.A.N.'s (Maschinenfabrik
> Augsburg Nurnburg)
> I have all of the different flavors of MAN's on my
> government drivers
> licence.
> GLCM = Ground Launched Cruise Missile
> SLCM = Sea Launched Cruise Missile
> ALCM = Air Launched Cruise Missile
> They were strictly USAF and were used for hauling
> the 4 missile GLCM
> launchers, known as TEL's. TEL stands for
> Transporter Erector Launcher. They
> also towed the LCC, Launch Control Center. There was
> also a wrecker version.
> They came into service when the first GLCM unit was
> fielded, I think it was
> 1984. All USAF GLCM Tomahawk BGM-109 missiles were
> nuclear tipped, no GLCM
> carried a conventional warhead. ALCM's and SLCM's
> could carry conventional
> or nuclear warheads. The active units were at RAF
> Greenham Common and RAF
> Molesworth in the UK. Germany, Belgium and Italy had
> one active unit each.
> The Netherlands unit never became armed.
> In the very late 1980's Reagan and Gorbachov agreed
> to take all GLCM's
> off-line. All of the missiles were physically
> destroyed as were the TEL's.
> Not one single MAN vehicle was destroyed. When they
> first were sold by DRMO,
> they only got $2000 each even though many had less
> than 5000 kilometers
> (3000 miles) on the clock. They are not suitable for
> civilian use because
> the 5th wheel is a couple of feet to high for a
> standard trailer. The fifth
> wheel cannot be lowered. The gearbox was truly
> amazing, sort of a standard
> and automatic transmission. You pushed in the
> clutch, put it in first, then
> let out the clutch slowly with your foot hard on the
> brake. The vehicle
> would lurch, but not move. You then let off the
> brake and worked your way
> through the first 8 gears without touching the
> clutch. Then you slapped the
> gearshift to the right and worked your way through
> the next 8 gears. That's
> how my memory tells me it was. but I haven't driven
> one for 15 years so ?.
> The front four wheels steered normally and the rear
> two steered in the
> opposite direction. They were much more powerful
> than the HEMMT's, and very
> over length.
> On a strange side note, whenever we drove them, we
> wore masks to conceal our
> identity. Hauling nukes in the 80's got you a lot of
> serious death threats.
> We liked Ronald Reagan masks the best, but our
> commanders insisted on
> uniformity, so we all had to swap to generic gorilla
> masks. I'm not kidding.
> There endeth the lesson.
> Sarge out.
>
>
>
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